Police apologize for holding motorist over online rant
Print Edition
POLICE in east China’s Shandong Province have apologized for detaining a man who went online to vent his fury over a parking ticket they gave him.
The motorist’s detention had angered many web users, who accused officers of abusing their power.
Traffic police in Yanzhou City wrote out a ticket on April 28 and left it on a car illegally parked by the roadside.
In response, the car owner, surnamed Cao, posted “Yanzhou police really suck!” on a local Internet forum.
In a statement posted on Tuesday on its official account with Sina Weibo microblog, the Public Security Bureau of Yanzhou said Cao had “publicly insulted the police of the people and created a very bad impact on society.”
Consequently, he had been placed in custody for five days as punishment.
In the statement, police also warned the public that any comments on the Internet could be traced, and that anyone who breaks the law must be brought to justice.
The post went viral, attracting many comments, most of which questioned the legitimacy of the punishment.
Netizen “Xiaruolixia” said the law is designed to safeguard justice rather than protect the police themselves.
The post was removed.
On Wednesday, Yanzhou police posted another statement on Weibo, saying Cao’s detention was improper and that they had decided to withdraw the punishment and apologize to him. Officers involved would be taken to account, it added.
Liu Min, a lawyer with Yingke Law Firm in Beijing, said it was baseless in legal terms to detain Cao. “It is misuse of power by authorities,” Liu said.
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